1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a control program, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, information processing apparatuses are known for managing the usage of image processing apparatuses, such as printers, scanners, copiers, or multifunction printers (MFP) having the integrated functions of printers, scanners and copiers.
However, with the known image processing apparatuses described above, a manager must register information in advance concerning users to be managed, thus requiring a high load for operation.
When accounts have been manually or automatically set for users, a print limit value for every user, which is an example of user information, must be appropriately set. Hence, in known systems, limitations can be imposed on printing only after the manager sets an upper limit or the like, which is undesirable for security.
Furthermore, when system user information registered in a system or system group information is managed separately from information concerning an image-processing-apparatus user or an image-processing-apparatus user group, if a user or group that has newly joined a network has performed printing, there is no method for recognizing the image-processing-apparatus user or that the image-processing-apparatus user has joined the network before the image-processing-apparatus user information has been registered in a job account system.